When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”” Mark 2:16-17 NIV https://bible.com/bible/111/mrk.2.17.NIV
One of the greatest acts of humility is when we fall on our knees and declare to God that He is, and we are not, that we have sinned against Him and need His forgiveness and pardon for our sin. One of the greatest acts of pride is our belief that we are good enough for God, that we need no repentance, and that He should and even must accept us as we are, for we are good. All those but only those who bend the knee in this life and confess with their mouth Jesus is Lord, that He alone is God, Judge and Ruler of all, will be forgiven by God, restored as children of God, and ensured by God that they have an eternal dwelling with God in the world to come. All those who remain good in their own minds, who refuse Jesus as Savior and Lord, who will not confess their sins, deny themselves, and follow Him, will be condemned by Him on that day they meet Him face to face. On that day, they will fulfill God’s promise that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. God loves us all and seeks us all to love Him back, but only those who humble themselves before Him in this life will inherit an eternal life of love, peace, joy, and abundance with God and all those who have ever loved Him. God is a friend of sinners because He seeks to restore them to Himself and turn them into eternal sons and daughters who live as saints forever with Him.